When processing documents which are required to pass an image quality standard, processing delays in image quality parameters and high rates of false-positive image errors place extra burdens on mechanical design. Workers in the art will be familiar with methods of processing checks and other financial instruments. Though paper checks and similar financial instruments historically were used in transactions requiring a physical interchange of documents, the industry is trending toward the electronic interchange of document images. This shift from physical to electronic interchange presents new challenges in the design of check processing machines.
The Check Processing for the 21st Century Act of 2001 (“Check 21”) put in place standards for the electronic interchange of check images and provided for electronic check images legal status in the check clearing system. In response to Check 21, check processors and manufacturers of check processing machines are transitioning to systems based on the electronic interchange of check images. In these systems, the paper check is often no longer present or recoverable after the initial transaction.
Because the original paper check often no longer exists, the quality of the captured check images is vital to the correct function of the clearing system. In the past, an illegible or otherwise insufficient quality paper check could be physically recovered and visually analyzed for verification. This can often no longer be done when paper checks have been physically destroyed, making it potentially impossible to accurately or swiftly reconcile a transaction.
To alleviate these problems, the industry and the Check 21 standards body have formulated common families of image quality references used in check image interchange. The manufactures of check processing machines have developed electronic and other tools to inspect and verify the captured images to warn machine operators of any defects. Upon being warned of a defect, the system operator can recover the physical check so that the image can be repaired or recaptured while the physical check is still available.
Conventionally, a check processing machine captures images of the front and back of a check and then applies various image-quality analyses and tests to the captured images. If the images pass the various tests, they are declared acceptable and the check from which they were captured is sorted with the other acceptable checks. If the images fail any of the various tests, the images are declared unacceptable and the check from which the images were captured is sorted with the other unacceptable checks. The operator will next analyze the reasons for the reported failures and then reprocess or otherwise correct the failures.
This conventional image error recovery process has several drawbacks when used in continuous process machines. First, there is a long delay, relative to the speed at which the machine is running, between capturing the image and a decision as to whether it is acceptable or unacceptable. Machines must be designed to compensate for the long delay before diverting a given check to acceptable or unacceptable receivers. Second, the rate of “false positives” is quite high. In fact, approximately 9 in 10 images deemed unacceptable by computer analysis are false positives. The high amount of false positives is attributable to the conservative approach that must be taken to ensure as few as possible legitimately unacceptable images are erroneously deemed acceptable.
Each of the false positives needs to be reprocessed, resulting in more delay in addition to the image quality decision delay. The false positive rate is even higher in the United States because of the wide range of check designs and formats, attributable to minimal check design standards combined with a large number of banks and check printers.
For these and other reasons, improvements are desirable.